Sharing the Good News

Summary

Tell two
others the same news, which they pass around the church: "each one reach
one".

Talk
about the importance of sharing the good news, and some of the ways we
can do this.

People

An adult
or older child to read the lesson.

Another
adult or older child to lead the discussion.

Props

Bible

Preparation

Select a
reader before or at the beginning of the service, according to your
normal practice.

As people
arrive for the service, select two children who are old enough to
understand how they need to help you during the first part of the
teaching activity.

Teaching Notes

Start by
asking two of the children to come to the front to hear some good news.
Whisper to each in turn: "Jesus loves you!" They should have been
primed beforehand to react joyfully but then to return to their seat and
tell nobody what they have heard.

Explain that it was great for them to hear
the good news, but that nothing has happened after that. Now call two
more children out, and whisper the same good news to each in turn, but
this time ask each to pass it on to one other person. Ask the rest of the
congregation to pass on the good news to one other person when they've
heard it, and to stand up.

Once everyone is standing, you could then
ask the whole congregation, on the count of three, to shout out the good
news to each other.

Talk about how important it is that we
share the good news of God's love with each other. You will have your own
ideas about what to say here, but one idea is to use the well-known story
of Jesus and the angel. When Jesus ascended to
heaven, he left behind a small group of followers, with all their
doubts (e.g. Thomas) and history of failures (e.g. Peter). He relied
on them to pass on His teaching to the rest of the world, and his
followers continued to do that for the next two thousand years. If
they hadn't, then we wouldn't know about Jesus today.

It is important to acknowledge how
difficult and awkward it can feel to talk about our faith. It can be
helpful to provide a couple of practical pointers here. Again you will
have your own thoughts about this, but one thought is that the children
in church are unlikely all to be from the same school, or from the same
year group: you might encourage them to be open about describing each
other as "a friend from church". You could also talk about the importance
of telling other people when your prayers are answered, and perhaps share
something from your own experience about this. It is possible, for
example, to use this service as a way of introducing a new element to the
children's "good news" slot, if you have one: inviting adults to come to
the front to share their good news, too, including answered prayers.